Caterbirds

Caterbirds were a mystical and rare species of bird. They were capable of intelligent thought and speech, and because they shared dreams with one another they typically viewed themselves as one individual rather than a species of creatures. The caterbird was the Ancient One of the Sky, seeded the third time the Mother Storm came to the Edge.

Contents

Characteristics

Cocoons

Caterbirds hatched, fully grown, from cocoons hanging in lullabee groves. Many caterbird cocoons, some hatched and some not, were found on Lullabee Island. A caterbird was bound to watch over and protect the life of anyone who witnessed their hatching, but they were occasionally reluctant to do so. The cocoons were woven by caterworms and could hang dormant for lifetimes before hatching. The hatching of a caterbird was an extremely rare event, occurring only once in a hundred years, or longer. The cocoons themselves were glittery, broad, and bulbous. They felt silky soft and smelled sweet and spicy. Those who slept in them dreamed the special dreams of caterbirds, which could give mental healing and wisdom.

Physical

Caterbirds were very large and strong with great wingspans, able to fly normally while easily holding smaller creatures such as fourthlings in their talons. Their eyes were purple and their bill was black and hooked. Most of their feathers were black, but their tail feathers were striped black and white. They had a long neck, a black beard, and a ridge crest that extended upwards in a curve behind their head.

Role in the Edge Chronicles

In Beyond the Deepwoods, Twig was present at the hatching of a caterbird. It immediately saved him from being eaten by a skullpelt, as it was bound to do. Later in the book it saved him when he was falling off of the Edge cliff, and it brought him to the Stormchaser. In Stormchaserthe same caterbird was kept in a cage in Flabsweat’s pet shop in Undertown. It told Twig the story of the crisis situation in Undertown and Sanctaphrax in exchange for being set free. At the end of Stormchaser it landed on the Edgedancerand told Twig that his father had been carried far out beyond the Edge into Open Sky by the Great Storm. At the beginning of Midnight Over Sanctaphraxit led the Edgedancer to the weather vortex that Cloud Wolf was inside, but the rage-inducing mind-warping effects within the vortex caused Twig to cut the rope attaching the caterbird to the Edgedancer. Near the end of Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, when Twig, Cowlquape, Woodfish, and Goom arrived at the Garden of Life, a caterbird was flying in the distance, but it soon flew farther away.

In The Immortals the caterbird whose hatching Twig had witnessed came to see him in the Garden of Life. Later on, it reversed the path of the poisoned dart that Golderayce One-Eye fired at Nate Quarter by stirring up a ferocious whirlwind with its wings, killing the Custodian General and saving Nate. Finally, after the destruction of the gloamglozers by the Immortals it talked to Nate and told him about the three Ancient Ones before flying out into Open Sky.